Making the transition

So here are the beds, nicely planted up with lettuce, peas, bok choi, swiss chard and broccoli.  Carrots, radishes, and a second crop of lettuce were also seeded Sunday.  This week looks to be in the 70s and only down to 50 or so at night.  Last week's frost did catch 3 of the broccoli without their cloches, and they are looking pretty sad.  If it is frost damage, hopefully they will come back.

Busy weekend

While I had no big stretches of work, it was a really busy weekend for the garden!  I got all of the lettuce, bok choi, and swiss chard transplanted out.  The cloches are all off the broccoli and the peas decided to really take off.  Direct seeding for carrots, more lettuce, and radishes is also done.  And the biggest amount of time (in two chunks):  All of the tomatoes are transplanted from the 72-cell starters to 3.5" pots.  That took a lot of compost!

I also managed to put together a tray of assorted seedlings for my friend Michelle at work who, at the urging of her daughter, is starting a garden this year!  Best of luck, Michelle!

First seedlings in the garden - Mixed results

Over the last week, I've begun planting out the first of the seedlings, with some mixed results.  So far, four broccoli plants are out in some homemade milk bottle cloches, and they are doing great!  Saturday, I put out 4 bok choi and 8 lettuce plants as tests, and the bok choi are doing really well, but the lettuce were all shredded by the 40mph wind we had with the storm Saturday night.  The temperature forecast for this week seems favorable for another test round.  I may also try to get some more direct seeded, as well as some carrots seeded out this week, if I can manage to find 15 minutes one evening.

Also, the snow peas I seeded on April 3rd are finally making an appearance!  I might have to add one horizontal run of twine between the soil and the bottom of the trellis to help them bridge the gap.  After the soil in the beds settling, the distance is almost 1.5' and I'm not sure they can make it that far on their own.

Jungle explosion!

Glad to see most of the seedlings doing so well, but I'm getting a little nervous that some are just getting so big so fast!  I've ordered some larger pots to start moving stuff to, now I just hope those come in soon.  At the bottom of the first and second photos, you can see that the ground cherries are finally starting to progress.

The lettuce is out of control!

Garlic update

Cattle panel trellis installed

 Ah!  Finally a productive (albeit chilly) day!  All the posts and the trellis panels are installed, and the raised beds are filled.  Took longer than I had hoped, but there is still time to get some cleaning done around the house to square it away for Kari and the kids during my trip to Nashville next week.  I hope to get the peas planted on Saturday, and maybe the broccoli too.  If I do, those will get cloches.

For now, I'm just happy to see the garden really take shape.  Perhaps when I get back, I can get the fence up and make sure I have enough to enclose the whole area with walking space around it.

Mixed veggie bed with tomato area behind

Mixed veggie bed with squash and garlic behind

Rohan's bed - Now THAT'S cute!

Slow week

Broccoli

While spring officially arrived last Sunday, someone forgot to tell Mother Nature!  It hasn't gotten much above 40 all week, and lows at night are still in the low to mid twenties. :(  So I haven't braved putting anything out, and, until today, I didn't even get to finish Rohan's bed.  We had around an inch of snow again on Wednesday, and more expected this coming week.  In fact, the forecast for the next week is much the same as the last, around 15 degrees below normal.

Leeks

 

If it weren't for the seedlings making their own progress, there would be none at all for this week.  As it is, the broccoli are getting ginormous, and I bought some 3" peat pots to stick them in tomorrow since I have no idea when I'll actually get them in the ground.  I'm not crazy about peat pots, and haven't had much luck with them before, but it's all I could find today.  Hopefully the plants survive the potting up and transplanting again once the weather turns.

Tomatoes

The leeks are also getting large, but they are sloooow growing.  In these shots, you can also see the tomatoes are making good progress, as well as the lettuce, bok choi, and swiss chard.  All of the herbs except for the dill seem to be real slow growers as well.

Lettuce

Bok Choi and Swiss Chard